Chapter 1| General introduction 1. Introduction 1.1. Problem statement 2. Theoretical background 2.1. A set of normative expectations for news media 2.2. Conceptualising the role of media in democratic public debate 2.3. Framing as analytical tool 2.4. The conceptual framework 3. Methodological approach and thesis outline 3.1. Research design 3.2. Data collection and analysis 3.3. Outline of the thesis Chapter 2 | The chick diffusion: How newspapers fail to meet normative expectations regarding their democratic role in public debate Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Literature review 2.1. Conceptualising newspapers as a forum for public debate 2.2. Normative expectations of newspapers 2.3. Between structural and actor-oriented approaches 2.4. Framing as tool for the analysis of public debate 3. Methods 3.1. Case selection 3.2. Data collection 3.3. Operationalisation of analytical framework 3.4. Framing analysis 4. Results 4.1. Frequency and distribution of issues 4.2. Co-occurrence of issues 4.3. Systemic contestation 4.4. Structural problematization 4.5. Structural shift 5. Discussion Chapter 3 | Something wicked this way comes: How well did UK newspapers support the public debate of Avian Influenza as a wicked problem? Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Background 2.1. Avian flu as a wicked problem 2.2. Framing 2.3. Expectations 3. Materials and methods 3.1. Data collection and curation 3.2. Framing analysis 3.3. Operationalisation of expectations 4. Results 4.1. Expectation 1: Connecting the dots 4.2. Expectation 2: Systemic contestation 4.3. Expectation 3: Structural problematisation 4.4. Expectation 4: Coverage that supports an opening up of the public debate 5. Discussion Chapter 4 | Not liable: How newspapers fail to provide the foundations needed to support a forum for accountability Abstract 1 12 1 "Revealed: the dirty secret of the UK's poultry industry. " The Guardian. July 23, 2014.